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Iconicity and Lexical Retention in Spanish: Stative and Dynamic Verbs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Thomas Montgomery
Thomas Montgomery*
Affiliation:
Tulane University
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Abstract

In Spanish, most inherited stative verbs belong to the 2nd conjugation—which is characterized by mid, never close, root-vowels. This condition is a result of the interaction of several morphological and phonetic factors in Latin, and a redistribution of 2nd and 3rd conjugation verbs according to root-vowel quality. Rates of lexical retention and loss reflect the degree to which verbs fit the developing morphophonemic and semantic patterns. A type of sound symbolism has thus influenced the composition of the modern vocabulary.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , December 1978, pp. 907 - 916
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 by Linguistic Society of America

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